Ian Lawless , Barry George and Others Miscarriage of Justice Compensation Set to be reviewed by High Court

Ian Lawless who had his murder conviction quashed in 2009 is set to have the refusal of the Secretary of State for Justice to pay him compensation reviewed by the High Court as a lead case in a series of conjoined reviews including the case of Barry George amongst the 5 selected.

The case was heard on 18th May by Mr Justice Irwin and directions have now been given for a substantive hearing to take place in October.

The cases centre on the recent Supreme Court decision in Adams and others which led to a reformulation of the test for the miscarriage of justice compensation. The Hearings will determine in the light of Adams which cases the Court now consider warrant miscarriage of justice compensation.

These cases arise out of considerable disquiet from those who have had their convictions quashed that they are not able to be compensated by the State for the time that they have lost as a result.

Ian Lawless had confessed to acting as a lookout during a murder but all of the evidence including prosecution witnesses themselves suggested that this might be false testimony. The Defence at trial never obtained psychological evidence but at the appeal following a referral from the CCRC the Court received evidence from Professor Gisli Gudjonnson that these confessions were wholly unreliable. The Crown never opposed the appeal.

Mark Newby Solicitor for Ian Lawless in both his appeal and this claim said:

“ We are delighted that Ian Lawless has been chosen as a test case for this review by the Court of Miscarriage Compensation Cases . It seems to us that there is very strong argument that Ian should be compensated by the Secretary of State “

QualitySolicitors Jordans are also pursuing a case on the issues related to the Secretary of States Scheme at the European Court of Human Rights.